We are very excited to welcome Karen Siegel Propis, MPH, MS, RD, LD, LAc, to our practice! Karen will be filling in while Julie Shindler-Cohen is on maternity leave and will maintain a part-time schedule once Julie returns. Karen was founder and owner of the Acupuncture and Nutrition Clinic in Houston, Texas where she had a private practice for acupuncture, herbal medicine and nutrition.

Karen treats a wide variety of emotional and physical problems using acupuncture and herbal medicine. She employs various strategies of Traditional Chinese Medicine to help patients overcome acute and chronic problems with pain, as well as symptoms of menopause, dysmenorrhea, digestive problems, depression and migraines. She is an advocate of working with a team and is pleased to be joining Michigan Associates of Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine.

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Karen earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Human Nutrition & Dietetics from the University of Vermont and completed her internship at the University of Texas, Houston. She received a Masters in Public Health degree from the University of Texas School of Public Health and her Masters degree in Oriental Medicine from the American College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in Houston, TX. She is Board Certified and Licensed through the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners and is a Diplomate in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbology.

As a practitioner that specializes in the childbearing year, I treat a lot of couples going through the process of getting pregnant. I’ve found that across the board, the journey can be very stressful. From checking your temperature to taking medication to timed intercourse, it certainly takes the fun out of trying to get pregnant. One thing that can be helpful is being intentional of your mindset during the process. Patients often oscillate between trying to control the situation and feeling desperately out of control. Creating an intention for yourself can alleviate a lot of that anxiety, stress, and depression.

Creating an Intention for your Fertility

This practice is simply used to focus the mind, rather than letting anxiety and fear get the best of us.

Step 1.

Release the past: If our mind is cluttered with memories of yesterday or anxiety regarding tomorrow, we cannot truly create from a blank slate.

Breathing in, I allow myself to come into this present moment.I choose to consciously release the past at this moment. I internally declare that the past has no power over me and I release and let go. (Deep sigh of relief).

Step 2. Create an intention:

With an intention, you begin by stating your desire. Be sure to use juicy adjectives like loving, nurturing, and fully self-expressed. You want your intention to feel like it really resonates with why you desire to have a child. Be sure NOT to intend things that are out of your control (like by when you will be pregnant, that it will be genetically yours, that you won’t have to do IVF, etc.) These thoughts generally arise from the ego and are our way of trying to control situations. In an ideal world, you want to be able to live into this intention no matter if you get pregnant or not. The “bigger” you create the intention (see numbers 3 & 4 below), the less likely it will be about trying to get what you want, and the more it will be about becoming the person you want to be in the world. Who we are for the world is the biggest gift we have to offer ourselves and others.

The flow of the intention can go something like this…

I would love the opportunity to be a loving mother to a healthy child.

My intention at this time is be a nurturing mother in a beautiful family with a child.

Who I am is the possibility of peace, love, and joy.

I am a stand for loving families on the planet.

Step 3. Release and let go.

Oftentimes this is the hardest part. But just practice it and see how your heart opens. You can speak your intention with love and gracefully follow it with a releasing meditation.

“I have shared my intention with the universe and know that it has been received. With that knowing, I release and let go. I release the attachment of my intention and choose to stay focused on who I am being, rather than what I am asking for.”

“I choose to have faith in this life. I know it is not always easy but regardless of the outcome, I choose to have faith in my journey.”

Step 4. Rinse and repeat

I recommend writing down the intention you’ve created and include the releasing meditation. You can carry it around with you in your wallet. You could put it on the mirror in your bathroom. The honest truth is that you might need to say it a lot during each day. Worry and anxiety can be so familiar to our brains that it becomes our automatic thought process. This will truly be a lesson in consciously creating your thoughts. Overtime, your efforts to make a shift in your mindset will leave you with a sense of peace and optimism.

Monica Mae Leibson, Dipl. Ac.

Monica Mae Leibson earned her Masters degree at the Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine (SBCOM), and is a NCCAOM Board Certified Acupuncturist. Monica has been trained in the treatment of physical and musculoskeletal injuries, working with alcohol and drug detoxification, as well as working with hospice patients. She has received extensive training in Chinese herbs, physical medicine and anatomy and physiology.

Monica has also obtained specialized training in Chinese Medicine and Infertility, studying under both Dr. Randine Lewis (author of The Infertility Cure) and Jane Lyttleton (author of Treating Infertility with Traditional Chinese Medicine). Monica and her infertility practice focuses on integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine with Reproductive Medicine.

Monica has been trained as a Birth Doula and Postpartum Doula. As a specialist, she educates clients about their options during birth. Through acupuncture and education, she supports a woman’s body during pregnancy so they are less likely to need induction or medical intervention. She also uses acupuncture and acupressure during birth to relieve pain and assist a smooth birth.

Her Postpartum Doula work includes educating women about breastfeeding, hormone regulation and infant health.

Monica is the past Treasurer and Membership Chair of the Michigan Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and uses Chinese Medicine to empower her clients to access their physical, emotional, and spiritual power. Monica combines her art of healing to express the divine creativity within all of us. When she’s not assisting patients in their healing, Monica spends her with time with her family, and also enjoys singing, dancing, and painting.

Over the eight years I’ve been in clinical practice, I’ve seen people for a variety of physical medicine issues. The initial intake includes a lengthy review of medical history and at the end, I always check in with how people are doing emotionally. As a holistic practitioner, I’ve learned that emotions can trigger physical issues. On the flip side; pain, insomnia, digestive issues, fertility, or any other issue can certainly create its own emotional reactions. The bottom line is that we are emotional beings that are inside a physical body. It’s truly a beautiful design.

Acupuncture has proven itself to be an amazing tool for releasing old emotions and supporting us to move forward in our journey. Emotions start as a neuro-chemical release in the brain. The release triggers a physical sensation which can range anywhere from digestive upset to sweating, heart pounding, headaches, etc. Not all emotions lead to these intense reactions but they generally manifest somewhere in the body. When we allow ourselves to truly experience the emotional cascade, the physical response lasts for anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes. What is very common, though, is that people will resist their emotions and try to stop themselves from feeling them altogether. As a society we look down on others and ourselves for feeling anxiety, depression, fear, etc. The new age thought of being able to create and manifest our lives can make people feel even worse because they don’t seem to allow any room for upset. I’ve seen so many people over the years who say that they HAVE TO stay positive in order to get what they want. That’s a lot of pressure! The Law of Attraction does NOT state that you have to be happy all the time, (we will save that for another blog). The point is that it’s OK to experience all different sorts of emotions. It is, in fact a necessary part of being a sentient and compassionate person. Oftentimes when we do experience emotions, rather than allowing them to naturally come and go, we hold on tight and aren’t able to release them from our minds and bodies. Acupuncture is a very effective way to facilitate a release. With this in mind, I am offering a specific treatment aimed at balancing stress and emotions and gently releasing emotional blockages.

During our brief intake, I will assess which emotions are out of balance. I will also feel the pulse and look at your tongue, which are Chinese Medicine diagnostic tools. We will then get started with our hands on treatment.

Chronic emotional issues that you’ve been working on in other ways with little success

The treatment will consist of Essential Oils (both inhaled and applied topically when appropriate) for your specific emotional needs. I will also create a customized meditation to release the grip of emotional stress and allow you to tap into your inner wisdom. The final modality will be acupuncture to facilitate a natural endorphin release and move emotional blockages that have gotten lodged in the body.

I am so inspired and look forward to working with you to release past emotions and create a new & exciting future.

Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine is based on the theory of “Qi Energy”. Qi energy is what guides all functions in our body – breath, movement, reproduction, digestion are all functions of qi. In TCM, every organ has Qi energy and each organ’s qi oversees different functions of the body. Every organ has a season in which the functions of that organ are “in the spotlight”. The organ (and qi) associated with the spring is the Liver.

Spring is a good time for rejuvenation and change. It is a also good time to think about supporting the Liver. In TCM, the Liver Qi regulates the flow of qi throughout the whole body. There are over 20 kinds of qi that the Liver QI keeps flowing smoothly. Stress in our life tends to effect the Liver qi. When this happens, the Liver qi does not flow smoothly, and it gets stagnant. Headaches, PMS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Depression, Irritability are all thought to be associated with Liver Qi stagnation. There are many ways we can support the Liver and assist it in its job. [Read more…]

In every social event or new encounter I have with people there is a question that comes up…”so what do you do for a living?” being an acupuncturist and a healer, immediately after my answer I get a list of medical diagnoses and health issues with a question following – “can acupuncture help with it?” Or even better – “I had acupuncture and it helped me a lot!”

Don’t get me wrong, I love talking about acupuncture, it is my passion. It is also my absolute pleasure to give as much information as I can to anyone who is interested in hearing. But when was the last time you had acupuncture? And if you did…why did you stop? Are you 100% fine now?

Acupuncture (Chinese medicine) is originally a preventative medicine. When Chinese medicine is taught, the practitioner learns about the healthy body and the way to maintain good health. Only after, it is taught how to bring someone back to balance from illness.

In ancient China every village or community had its Dr. The medicine man would be reworded for the amount of healthy patients he had and not for the sick. It is written in the Huang Di Nei Jing that the most skillful Dr. is treating healthy patients. The reason is, that Chinese medicine is a preventative one in essence.

The skilled man would walk in his village or town and summon patients when the time was right. He knew the people of his community, their weaknesses and health tendencies. He also knew their energetic birth chart and would see if the upcoming energies in the next season are going to affect their health.

Most people pay hundreds of dollars every month for health insurance that does not insure their health at all. It is important, but doesn’t prevent them from getting sick. Many people do not consider having a health issue even though being medicated for one. “Everything is fine” people say, but behind this sentence, stands at times, a long list of drugs they depend on and a history of highly invasive medical procedures.

Being medicated (at times necessary) doesn’t fix the problem, the root cause is still present. Eventually if no energetic change is done, new symptom or illness might rise. Acknowledgment that something is off track, is the first step towards a positive shift and real healing. There is always something to work on.

Parenting can be stressful, but it doesn’t always have to be.It is important to feel you have control of your household without overexerting yourself, or feeling like you are doing more work than anyone else in your home. Often I have found, that what is actually going on in our lives is less important than the level of control we feel that we have over the situation. Here are seven tips for less stressful parenting that have helped other families I have worked with, and hopefully will make things much easier for you too.

7 TIPS FOR LESS STRESSFUL PARENTING:

1. Avoid power struggles – Family problems often stem from everyone struggling for power within the household. Parents want to be in control of their children and the choices they make, while children want to be in control of their own choices. Children as young as [Read more…]

I recently held a seminar with Dr. George Nicoloff, who is board certified in Integrative Holistic Medicine. We were so excited to have over 60 people attend! We agreed to speak on the connection between the gut & immune system, as we know how deeply interwoven they are. We shared a lot of information in just a short time. So although this is not comprehensive, here is a portion of our presentation:

In Chinese Medicine, the relationship between the Lung (immune) and Large Intestine (gut) meridians:

* The Large Intestine is responsible for receiving waste material from the Small Intestine system, absorbing fluid content, and excreting the waste.

* The Lung organ is responsible for governing qi and respiration, regulating water passages, controlling skin and hair and opening to the nose.

* The Qi of both the Large Intestine and the Lung needs to descend to be healthy – when Lung Qi doesn’t descend, we cough.

Eat foods that are warm and easy to digest (temperature is important to gut) Steam vegetables as opposed to eating them raw (only eat raw in spring and summer)

Be careful with food combinations: Protein, fat, complex carb at every meal. Protein the size of your palm, carbs the size of your fist, fats the size of your thumb. See “Game On Diet” by Krista Vernoff

Eat slowly & intentionally. Chew thoroughly.

Lung Meridian =

Ways to care for the Lungs:

Practice deep breathing

Avoid toxic substances that are inhaled (toxic candles (lead and paraffin which is a petroleum biproduct), fumes, toxic household products)

I feel so fortunate to have found such a great doctor who takes time with each of his patients and has a background in holistic medicine. And between acupuncture visits and supplements/herbs, the immune & digestive system can be truly repaired.

Those who think
they have no time for healthy eating will sooner or later have to find time for
illness.”

Did you know that every single cell in our skeleton is replaced every 7 years? Literally, we are releasing the past and creating new selves. In terms of health and wellness, this is great news! We truly do have the ability to overcome our past and become a new vision of ourselves. In our office we are fortunate enough be a part of this amazing process; watching people shift from health to disease. This year, we are envisioning a year of transformation for all of our patients, our families, and everyone who we share this planet with.

~ The team at Michigan Associates of Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine

2013 was a big year for our family because we welcomed our son, Myles, into the world. Before having my daughter I really didn’t know anything about children’s health and since having her, I’ve done additional training in pediatrics and alternative medicine. This time around, I implemented all my tools from the start. When my son has had issues with sleep, I used homeopathy & essential oils. When I had to work hard to maintain my milk supply, I used acupuncture and herbs. When he had a fever that was not too high, I allowed it to break naturally, instead of using medication. When he was having constipation, I used massage, probiotics, fish oils, and diet changes. And for everything from fussiness to teething, I use the most natural healing aid I’ve been given, breastfeeding. This year has allowed me to use what I’ve learned about natural health for my children and ignited my passion to share it with others.

I recently attending the Center for Mind/Body Medicine’s conference entitled “Food As Medicine”. The conference was inspiring, to say the least. It made me think about diet in general and how it affects our health. According to the many speakers, diet can be the difference between living a long, healthy life or not. One speaker asserts that by eating a healthy diet can affect the expression of genetics, specifically in the case of cancer! No matter the presenter’s background, all agree that our diet and food choices are ultimately our best medicine or worst poison. If you want to talk about preventative medicine, diet cannot be ignored. After 4 days of lectures, the amount of information can be overwhelming but I have come up with a few dietary basics that are good “food for thought” as we prepare our next meal. [Read more…]